


Yellow Duck on the Horizon

by drinktea



Category: Free!
Genre: Bromance, Samezuka, barely concealed gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 13:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3210755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drinktea/pseuds/drinktea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being Rin is exhausting, and being friends with him is even more exhausting. Somehow, Sousuke and Ai manage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yellow Duck on the Horizon

**Author's Note:**

> Let's please forget about continuity for a second here and pretend they're swimming in an eternal summer.

Rin doesn't notice it until it's already happening.

"Yamazaki-senpai! Rin-senpai!" Ai waves in greeting, running up. "You're late! That's not like you, Yamazaki- senpai. Could it have been Rin-senpai that made you late?"

Sousuke's lips turn up the slightest bit at Ai's question, asked so plainly. "Nitori, you're pretty observant, aren't you?"

"Hey, why are you blaming me?" Rin suddenly interjects, feeling indignant. He gets the distinct feeling that he's being ganged up on.

"Rin-senpai, please. We've both lived with you," Ai says, and it sounds scolding.

Sousuke wears a frowning smile. "Ah. Nitori's right. You take a really long time on your hair. And clothes. And you brush your teeth ten minutes at a time."

"He does!" confirms Ai at the same moment that Rin squeaks out, "I do _not!_ "

Sousuke laughs, shoots Nitori a look, then turns to the pool and rotates a shoulder. "Come on, let's get this practice started."

Ai jumps a little in place, then about-faces and trails Sousuke to the pool. "Yes, Yamazaki-senpai!"

"Oral health is important!" Rin barks after them, only to receive the response of suppressed laughter.

Rin narrows his eyes at the departing pair. Though they're not exactly chatty or chiding or... anything in particular, he stares after them. He knows Sousuke trained Ai for a while, but since when did they get to be actual _friends_?

* * *

"Yo, Sousuke!"

Rin's been looking for Sousuke for nearly the whole day, but he definitely didn't expect to find him at the mall. He's grateful that his best friend is so ridiculously tall and therefore easily located in just about any setting.

"Rin," Sousuke says. He walks over with something yellow and fluffy in his hands. The item is decidedly un- Sousuke.

Rin stares baldly at the fluffy thing. "Sousuke, what...?"

Sousuke follows Rin's line of sight easily enough. "It's for Nitori," he explains sparingly as always.

Somehow this "explanation" doesn't really clear things up at all, at least not for Rin. "Why are you buying Nitori a stuffed duck?"

Sousuke raises an eyebrow at Rin. "It's Nitori's birthday party tonight and I didn't have a gift. Aren't you going there yourself?"

For some reason, the statement and the look on Sousuke's face and the fact that this is playing out at all really gets under Rin's skin. Irate, he says, "Yes, I'm going. I've been trying to contact you all day to invite you along. Though apparently I didn't have to," he adds under his breath.

Sousuke pulls out his phone and finds what Rin assumes are the missed calls and texts from himself. "Oh. Sorry," Sousuke apologizes.

"So, Ai invited you?"

Sousuke just stares at him like he's crazy. Then he holds up the duck. "No, I just like party crashing with ducks," he deadpans. Then he laughs, "I told you already that I'm going."

Rin clenches his teeth. "Ah, whatever," he growls, then resolves to just give Ai money for his birthday.

* * *

Rin has developed a twitch beneath his eye that is really unbecoming. And it's all Sousuke's fault.

"Even though Yamazaki-senpai's shoulder must hurt, he still stays really fit, doesn't he?" Ai observes in an admiring tone from his spot next to Rin along the wall at the pool.

Sousuke is doing a minimal set of laps today, and with front crawl no less, but his form looks as good as ever. Although Ai speaks the truth, that twitch surfaces.

"Mm-hm," Rin agrees.

"I should go to the gym more! Maybe Yamazaki-senpai can teach me there, too."

Twitch. Rin gives Ai the side eye.

Realizing his words, Ai stutters, "C-could I join the two of you? If you don't want the intrusion--"

"Just come, Ai. Sheesh," he says. He rolls his eyes.

Apparently Rin has made Ai is so nervous that he's reverted to his old self, bowing nervously at the waist. "Y- Yes, Captain!"

"What did you do, Rin? Nitori's practically cowering in fear." It's Sousuke's voice. He must have just left the pool since he's still dripping as he strides over to them.

Twitch. Rin's lips just work themselves into a screwy line. "Me? I didn't do anything. Maybe he did something, or maybe you did something! Maybe a lot of somethings happened without my knowledge!" he practically bursts out.

Ai looks at Rin with heavy uncertainty while Sousuke blinks at him in silence.

"Never mind," Rin grunts, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Forget I said anything."

* * *

Rin has just contented himself with sitting outside the main doors like a loser when he spots them both approaching. They smartly put on shoes before chasing him-- he's got dirty, melting snow and bits of dead leaf all over his feet. And he's freezing. Whatever.

"Rin-senpai!" Ai calls. It reminds Rin so much of the old days when he took Ai's companionship for granted that after a beat, he reluctantly calls out a "yo".

Ai arrives with a sad "Rin-senpai", and Sousuke arrives a second later without a word, just the weight of a knowing stare.

He looks up from his hands at them both. They're both waiting for him to say something. They're both so patient, so... ugh. It annoys him that they both react the same way, and he's about to tell them both exactly what he thinks of them being so suddenly _chummy_.

Ai's expression shifts from sad to concerned. Sousuke moves his weight from one foot to another, but keeps his gaze trained on Rin's face. There's not an ounce of anger between them, despite how he's acted. They stay keyed into him.

And then he realizes that they both act the same way because they both know how to love him. They know that if they push him, he'll become guarded and fight them. They know that he needs the space and freedom to come to them.

He heaves a big sigh. He looks up at them. "Sorry. It's just me being stupid." And he smiles.

Sousuke lifts an eyebrow. "Well, we knew that," he says.

Ai's whole face lights up with relief. "We were afraid you'd stay mad."

Rin shakes his head. "I couldn't. Not at you guys," he says honestly. He jerks his thumb over toward the doors. "Come on, let's get inside."

"I still can't believe you came out here with bare feet," Sousuke comments and shakes his head.

Ai's eyes grow to the size of saucers. "Yamazaki-senpai is right! You'll catch a cold."

"Will you two stop? I'm not that weak," Rin growls, immediately annoyed again, though in the right way this time.

So suffice it to say that three days later, Rin is in bed with a cold, sneezing periodically, alternately having an eye-rolling Sousuke and a clucking Ai checking up on him every few hours. When Sousuke actually touches all of his disgusting tissues in order to throw them away, and when Ai commandeers the school kitchen to make him soup, Rin yells at them to stop babying him and bark through all the phlegm that he's completely fine.

But when they're curled up sleeping next to his disgusting, drippy self, he's secretly, maybe, just a tiny bit happy that they're his.


End file.
